Wednesday, August 03, 2022

Star Gamma Cassiopeiae & The Ghost Nebula (ground-based wide view)

Star Gamma Cassiopeiae & The Ghost Nebula (ground-based wide view)


This image shows the sky around the nebula IC 63, nicknamed the Ghost Nebula. It was created from images forming part of the Digitized Sky Survey 2. The field of view is dominated by the bright star Gamma Cassiopeiae, which is having a profound influence on IC 63. IC 63 is only one of several nebulous structures surrounding Gamma Cassiopeiae—all of which are affected by the radiation emitted by the blue-white subgiant star. Gamma Cassiopeiae is a variable star, and a multiple star system. 

Based upon parallax measurements made by Europe's Hipparcos scientific satellite, Gamma Cassiopeiae is located at a distance of roughly 550 light-years from Earth. Together with its common-proper-motion companion, HD 5408, the system could contain a total of eight stars. Gamma Cassiopeiae has a mass 17 times that of the Sun. The star’s estimated age is only 8 million years.


Credit: European Space Agency/Hubble, NASA, Digitized Sky Survey 2

Acknowledgement: Davide de Martin

Release Date: October 25, 2018


#NASA #ESA #Astronomy #Space #Hubble #Star #GammaCassiopeiae #Navi #ReflectionNebula #EmissionNebula #IC63 #GhostNebula #Cassiopeia #Constellation #Cosmos #Universe #SpaceTelescope #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #Europe #STEM #Education

The Ghost Nebula (infrared view) | Hubble

The Ghost Nebula (infrared view) | Hubble


Powerful gushers of energy from seething stars can sculpt eerie-looking figures with long flowing veils of gas and dust. One striking example is "the Ghost of Cassiopeia," officially known as IC 63, located 550 light-years away in the constellation Cassiopeia the Queen.

The nebula's ethereal glow might remind people of apparitions such as those reported by paranormal investigators. In reality, when viewed in near-infrared wavelengths, streamers of dust are reflecting light from the nearby, blue-giant star Gamma Cassiopeiae (not seen here). In this near-infrared view background stars and galaxies can be seen through the semitransparent dust clouds. A blue color was assigned to shorter infrared wavelengths in one exposure. A red color was assigned to longer infrared wavelengths in a second exposure, and the images were then combined. Hubble photographed IC 63 in August 2016.

The constellation Cassiopeia is visible every clear night from mid-northern and higher latitudes. Its distinctive "W" asterism, which forms the queen's throne, is best seen high in the sky on autumn and winter evenings. Gamma Cassiopeiae, the middle star in the W, is visible to the unaided eye, but a large telescope is needed to see IC 63.


Credit: NASA, European Space Agency, and Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI)

Acknowledgment: H. Arab (University of Strasbourg)

Release Date: October 25, 2018


#NASA #ESA #Astronomy #Space #Hubble #ReflectionNebula #EmissionNebula #IC63 #Infrared #GhostNebula #Cassiopeia #Constellation #Cosmos #Universe #SpaceTelescope #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #Europe #STEM #Education

Zoom-in on The Ghost Nebula | Hubble

Zoom-in on The Ghost Nebula | Hubble

This video zooms in on the emission and reflection nebula IC 63—nicknamed the Ghost Nebula—about 550 light-years away. It starts with a view of the night sky as seen from the ground. It then zooms through observations from the Digitized Sky Survey 2, and ends with a view of the nebula obtained with the NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope.


Credit: Hubble, Digitized Sky Survey 2, N. Risinger

Music: Astral Electronic

Duration: 50 seconds

Release Date: October 25, 2018


#NASA #ESA #Astronomy #Space #Hubble #ReflectionNebula #EmissionNebula #IC63 #GhostNebula #Cassiopeia #Constellation #Cosmos #Universe #SpaceTelescope #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #Europe #STEM #Education #HD #Video

The Ghost Nebula | Hubble

The Ghost Nebula | Hubble


IC 63—nicknamed the Ghost Nebula—is about 550 light-years from Earth. The nebula is classified as both a reflection nebula—as it is reflecting the light of a nearby star—and as an emission nebula—as it releases hydrogen-alpha radiation. Both effects are caused by the gigantic star Gamma Cassiopeiae. The radiation of this star is also slowly causing the nebula to dissipate.


Credit: European Space Agency/Hubble, NASA

Release Date: October 25, 2018


#NASA #ESA #Astronomy #Space #Hubble #ReflectionNebula #EmissionNebula #IC63 #GhostNebula #Cassiopeia #Constellation #Cosmos #Universe #SpaceTelescope #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #Europe #STEM #Education

SpaceX Crew-5 Training Footage | NASA

SpaceX Crew-5 Training Footage | NASA

NASA’s SpaceX Crew-5 training reel with NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, as well as Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Koichi Wakata, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Anna Kikina. The Crew-5 crew is training for their long-duration mission to the International Space Station. 

NASA Astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada are going to the International Space Station no earlier than Sept. 29, 2022 alongside their crewmates, Koichi Wakata of JAXA, and Anna Kikina of Roscosmos.


Astronaut Josh Cassada Official NASA Biography

https://www.nasa.gov/astronauts/biographies/josh-a-cassada

Astronaut Nicole Mann Official NASA Biography

https://www.nasa.gov/astronauts/biographies/nicole-a-mann

Astronaut Koichi Wakata Official JAXA Biography

https://humans-in-space.jaxa.jp/en/astronaut/wakata-koichi/

Cosmonaut Anna Kikina Roscosmos Info

Anna Yuryevna Kikina (Russian: Анна Юрьевна Кикина, born August 27, 1984, in Novosibirsk) is a Russian engineer and test cosmonaut, selected in 2012. She is the only woman cosmonaut currently in active service at Roscosmos. [Wikipedia]

An international partnership of space agencies provides and operates the elements of the  International Space Station (ISS). The principals are the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada. The ISS has been the most politically complex space exploration program ever undertaken.

Learn more about the important research being operated on ISS: https://www.nasa.gov/iss-science 


Credit: NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC)

Duration: 22 minutes

Release Date: August 3, 2022


#NASA #Space #ISS #ESA #Roscosmos #JAXA #SpaceX #SpacexCrew5 #CrewDragon #Astronaut #NicoleMann #JoshCassada #KoichiWakata #YuryevnaKikina #Astronauts #HumanSpaceflight #JSC #Japan #日本 #Russia #Россия #UnitedStates #Science #STEM #Education #HD #Video

The Wings of The Twin Jet Nebula | Hubble

The Wings of The Twin Jet Nebula | Hubble

Hubblecast 86: This Hubblecast explores the wings of Twin Jet Nebula which were observed and studied by the NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope. The elongated form of this planetary nebula is caused by two stars in its center, orbiting each other.

Distance: 4,000 light years in the constellation Ophiuchus


Credit: European Space Agency (ESA)
Directed by: Mathias Jäger
Visual design and editing: Martin Kornmesser
Written by: Mathias Jäger, Nicky Jenner, Georgia Bladon
Narration: Sara Mendes da Costa
Images: NASA, ESA/Hubble
Videos: NASA, ESA/Hubble, NASA Goodard Space Flight Center
Animations: Martin Kornmesser, Luis Calcada, NASA, ESA/Hubble
Music: Stan Dart (www.stan-dart.com)
Web and technical support: Mathias Andre and Raquel Yumi Shida
Executive producer: Lars Lindberg Christensen
Duration: 5 minutes
Release Date: August 26, 2015


#NASA #ESA #Astronomy #Space #Hubble #PNM29 #PlanetaryNebula #Nebula #TwinJetNebula #Ophiuchus #Constellation #Cosmos #Universe #SpaceTelescope #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #Europe #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Panning across The Twin Jet Nebula | Hubble

Panning across The Twin Jet Nebula | Hubble

This video pans over NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope observations of the Twin Jet Nebula. The elongated form of this planetary nebula is caused by two stars in its center, orbiting each other.

Distance: 4,000 light years in the constellation Ophiuchus


Credit: NASA & European Space Agency

Duration: 56 seconds

Release Date: August 26, 2015

#NASA #ESA #Astronomy #Space #Hubble #PNM29 #PlanetaryNebula #Nebula #TwinJetNebula #Ophiuchus #Constellation #Cosmos #Universe #SpaceTelescope #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #Europe #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Zooming in on The Twin Jet Nebula | Hubble

Zooming in on The Twin Jet Nebula | Hubble

This video begins with a ground-based view of the night sky, before zooming in on the Twin Jet Nebula, a bipolar planetary nebula, as the NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope sees it.


Credit: NASA & European Space Agency

Duration: 56 seconds

Release Date: August 26, 2015

#NASA #ESA #Astronomy #Space #Hubble #PNM29 #PlanetaryNebula #Nebula #TwinJetNebula #Ophiuchus #Constellation #Cosmos #Universe #SpaceTelescope #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #Europe #STEM #Education #HD #Video

The Twin Jet Nebula | Hubble

The Twin Jet Nebula | Hubble

The Twin Jet Nebula, or PN M2-9, is a striking example of a bipolar planetary nebula. Bipolar planetary nebulae are formed when the central object is not a single star, but a binary system, Studies have shown that the nebula’s size increases with time, and measurements of this rate of increase suggest that the stellar outburst that formed the lobes occurred just 1200 years ago.

Distance: 4,000 light years in the constellation Ophiuchus


Credit: European Space Agency/Hubble & NASA

Acknowledgement: Judy Schmidt

Release Date: August 26, 2015


#NASA #ESA #Astronomy #Space #Hubble #PNM29 #PlanetaryNebula #Nebula #TwinJetNebula #Ophiuchus #Constellation #Cosmos #Universe #SpaceTelescope #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #Europe #STEM #Education

Pan of The Jewel Bug Nebula | Hubble

Pan of The Jewel Bug Nebula | Hubble

This image from the NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope depicts NGC 7027, or the “Jewel Bug” nebula.

The object had been slowly puffing away its mass in quiet, spherically symmetric or perhaps spiral patterns for centuries—until relatively recently  when it produced a new cloverleaf pattern.

NGC 7027 is located around 3,000 light-years (920 parsecs) from Earth in the constellation Cygnus.

New observations of the object have found unprecedented levels of complexity and rapid changes in the jets and gas bubbles blasting off of the star at the centre of the nebula.


Credit: NASA, European Space Agency, and J. Kastner (RIT)

Duration: 20 seconds

Release Date: June 18, 2020


#NASA #ESA #Astronomy #Space #Hubble #NGC7027 #PlanetaryNebula #Nebula #JewelBugNebula #Cygnus #Constellation #Cosmos #Universe #SpaceTelescope #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #Europe #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Zooming into The Jewel Bug Nebula | Hubble

Zooming into The Jewel Bug Nebula | Hubble

This video zooms into the planetary nebula NGC 7027, also known as the Jewel Bug Nebula.

The object had been slowly puffing away its mass in quiet, spherically symmetric or perhaps spiral patterns for centuries—until relatively recently when it produced a new cloverleaf pattern.

NGC 7027 is located around 3,000 light-years (920 parsecs) from Earth in the constellation Cygnus.


Credit: European Space Agency/Hubble, Risinger, Digitized Sky Survey 2, L. Calcada  

Music: Astral Electronic

Duration: 50 seconds

Release Date: June 18, 2020


#NASA #ESA #Astronomy #Space #Hubble #NGC7027 #PlanetaryNebula #Nebula #JewelBugNebula #Cygnus #Constellation #Cosmos #Universe #SpaceTelescope #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #Europe #STEM #Education #HD #Video

The Jewel Bug Nebula | Hubble

The Jewel Bug Nebula | Hubble


This image from the NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope depicts NGC 7027, or the “Jewel Bug” nebula. The object had been slowly puffing away its mass in quiet, spherically symmetric or perhaps spiral patterns for centuries—until relatively recently when it produced a new cloverleaf pattern.

NGC 7027 is located around 3,000 light-years (920 parsecs) from Earth in the constellation Cygnus.

New observations of the object have found unprecedented levels of complexity and rapid changes in the jets and gas bubbles blasting off of the star at the center of the nebula.


Credit: NASA, European Space Agency, and J. Kastner (RIT)

Release Date: June 18, 2020


#NASA #ESA #Astronomy #Space #Hubble #NGC7027 #PlanetaryNebula #Nebula #JewelBugNebula #Cygnus #Constellation #Cosmos #Universe #SpaceTelescope #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #Europe #STEM #Education

Tuesday, August 02, 2022

What's Up at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility?

What's Up at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility?

From sounding rockets to scientific balloons to research aircraft, NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on the Eastern Shore of Virginia is a unique national asset that has a lot to offer.

Learn more: https://www.nasa.gov/centers/wallops/home


Credit: NASA's Wallops Flight Facility

Lead Producer: Jamie Adkins (NASA)

Music Credits: "Kermode" by Tigerblood Jewel via Epidemic Sound

Duration: 1 minute

Release Date: August 2, 2022


#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Earth #ISS #Science #NASAWallops #Wallops #WallopsFlightFacility #Rockets #Launch #ResearchAircraft #Drones #UAV #ScientificBalloons #SoundingRockets #Technology #Spaceflight #Virginia #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Return to The Carina Nebula | Hubble

Return to The Carina Nebula | Hubble

Looking like an elegant abstract art piece painted by talented hands, this picture is actually a NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope image of a small section of the Carina Nebula. Part of this huge nebula was documented in the well-known Mystic Mountain picture and this picture takes an even closer look at another piece of this bizarre astronomical landscape.

The Carina Nebula itself is a star-forming region about 7,500 light-years from Earth in the southern constellation of Carina (The Keel: part of Jason’s ship the Argo). Infant stars blaze with a ferocity so severe that the radiation emitted carves away at the surrounding gas, sculpting it into strange structures. The dust clumps towards the upper right of the image, looking like ink dropped into milk, were formed in this way. It has been suggested that they are cocoons for newly forming stars.

The Carina Nebula is mostly made from hydrogen, but there are other elements present, such as oxygen and sulphur. This provides evidence that the nebula is at least partly formed from the remnants of earlier generations of stars where most elements heavier than helium were synthesized.

The brightest stars in the image are not actually part of the Carina Nebula. They are much closer to us, essentially being the foreground to the Carina Nebula’s background.

This picture was created from images taken with Hubble’s Wide Field Planetary Camera 2. Images through a blue filter (F450W) were colored blue and images through a yellow/orange filter (F606W) were colored red. The field of view is 2.4 by 1.3 arcminutes.


Credit: European Space Agency/Hubble & NASA 

Release Date: July 4, 2011


#NASA #ESA #Astronomy #Space #Hubble #Stars #Globules #CarinaNebula #NGC3372 #Carina #Constellation #Cosmos #Universe #SpaceTelescope #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #Europe #STEM #Education

Zoom into Star Cluster Trumpler 14 | Hubble

Zoom into Star Cluster Trumpler 14 | Hubble

This short sequence zooms in on the open young cluster of stars, Trumpler 14, of the Carina Nebula. One of the largest gatherings of hot, massive and bright stars in the Milky Way, this cluster houses some of the most luminous stars in our entire galaxy.


Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO), DSS, European Space Agency/Hubble, Risinger

Music: Johan B. Monell

Duration: 50 seconds

Release Date: January 21, 2016


#NASA #ESA #ESO #Astronomy #Space #Hubble #Stars #Trumpler14 #StarCluster #BokGlobule #CarinaNebula #NGC3372 #Carina #Constellation #Cosmos #Universe #SpaceTelescope #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #Europe #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Dazzling Diamond-like Stars of Trumpler 14 | Hubble

Dazzling Diamond-like Stars of Trumpler 14 | Hubble

This NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope image features the star cluster Trumpler 14. One of the largest gatherings of hot, massive and bright stars in the Milky Way, this cluster houses some of the most luminous stars in our entire galaxy.

The prominent dark patch, close to the center of the cluster is a so called Bok globule: this is an isolated and relatively small dark nebula, containing dense dust and gas. These objects are still subjects of intense research as their structure and density remains somewhat a mystery.


Credit: NASA & European Space Agency, Jesús Maíz Apellániz (Centro de Astrobiología, CSIC-INTA, Spain)

Release Date: January 21, 2016


#NASA #ESA #Astronomy #Space #Hubble #Stars #Trumpler14 #StarCluster #BokGlobule #CarinaNebula #NGC3372 #Carina #Constellation #Cosmos #Universe #SpaceTelescope #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #Europe #STEM #Education